I do not own anything. Mass Effect belongs to EA/Bioware.

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"When I die please bury me deep!" The gruff voice of the Drill Sergeant sang out.

"When I die please bury me deep!" The voice of the trainees thundered out, as we were marching in line, lead by the sergeant. Being lead to something called the 'playground'. If I had gotten a stable meal and rest I would have kept the cognitive capacity to be worried.

So instead I just marched on.

"Place a rifle down by my feet!"

"Don't cry for me, don't shed no tear!"

"Just pack my box with PT gear!"

"Cuz one early morning 'bout zero-five!"

"The ground will rumble, there'll be lightning in the sky!"

"Don't you worry don't come undone!"

"It's just my ghost on PT run!"

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"Mother fuck!" I all but screamed out as I was crawling trough a ditch. I felt like I was almost going to drown in all the mud and water that called it home. The barb wire looming above my head forcing me to crawl while prone, my situation made more difficult by the heavy backpack and the M7 Lancer in my hands.

The playground, as it turned out, had been a obstacle course. And apparently a very important part of boot camp... if the screaming NCOs and live fire going on above up were any indication.

And it just had to start fucking raining now or all times.

Up until now we had been doing non-stop physical exercise, rifle fire and maintenance drills, foot drills, and constant inspection of the way we made our beds, treated our uniforms and polished our boots... that and an endless barrage of yelling and insults.

"Daskalov hurry your shit up or I will shoot you in your fucking knee!"

I just hoped boot camp would end sooner rather than later.

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"In other news: The colony of Yandoa suffered catastrophic element-zero exposure when a freighter, belonging to the company Eldfell-Ashland Energy, detonated in low orbit over the primary settlement. The consequences for the populace are currently being analyzed." The news report then droned on, completely ignored.

"You sure about this?"

I turned to my older brother, Bogomil Katsarov. He looked much like me, fairly pale skin, short black hair and brown eyes, he was however twelve years older than me, married and with a child. After Mindoir I found myself living with him, it was odd to say the least. Well I definitely didn't feel as bad I used to, my emotions mostly manifesting as bouts of melancholy... than and a great deal of rage when it came to Batarians.

Talitha had essentially been all but adopted by my brother. Her family was close to my own, but unlike me, she had nothing left. So now my brother was her legal guardian and she had spent the last three months being attached to me by the hip.

I had actually exchanged a few messages with Jane as well, I guess you could say she was the one who finally convinced me to join the Alliance. Well I likely would've anyway. Seeing as how my mind was often clouded with fantasies of revenge, also known as brutalizing pirates.

While the psychologists who checked my head were definitely concerned with my mental stability, the Alliance brass were willing to take a risk due to my latent biotic potential. I had received several offers to join their specialized biotic training unit, and the promise of good pay was just icing on the cake.

"Yes. I'm going to do it."

It was decided. It was decided the moment those fucks thought they could kill my family and get away with it... I wasn't going to let it slide.

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What?

Everything was blurry, and so damn bright. Voices. Were those voices, they sounded so... weird.

My head hurts. It feels like it's being split open.

My vision swam... more than it currently was at least. And then darkness overtook me.

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"So how do you feel?"

The voice belonged to one Kahlee Sanders. A woman with blonde hair, blue eyes and pale skin. She was a member of the team overseeing the surgical operation that gave me my shiny new biotic implant.

The L3, she explained to me, differed from the older L2. While the older model could, technically, give higher performance, it wasn't consistent. It could be just as weak as the old L1s which were useless in combat. It could also make me powerful, more powerful than a turian Cabal for example, but carried with it the risk of insanity or agonizing pain. Some of the luckier ones would have mild migraines fairly often... a easy price to pay for biotic strength as high as theirs.

The L3 on the other hand had consistency, the operatives would be notably more mediocre in power, but the risk with them was minimal... and honestly I was very appreciative of that.

"Like someone is trying to split my head open from the inside."

A very apt description of how I felt. Seriously, I knew I just had a chip put in my brain... but this hurt like a bitch.

Kahlee only smiled in response.

"Good." The exceedingly chipper way in which she said that did not improve my mood. "That's normal. Now you obviously need rest before you even think about starting your biotic training. In a few weeks we'll see how well you nervous system has acclimated to the implant."

She answered a few questions I had and left, leaving me alone in the room.

I sighted and leaned back into the bed. Well I was on my way to greatness that's for sure... well greatness or mediocrity, an early grave was also a possibility.

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Okay everyone. The last two chapters were fairly boring but I needed to get the aftermath of Mindoir done with. And the obligatory 'boot camp episode' is now out of the way.

The next chapter will feature a timeskip and will have more action. Essentially the stories early setup is generally done with, we'll now move to the early military career section, before finally moving to the meat of the bones.

Thank you everyone who has enjoyed this story.